What Does 1 Chronicles 25:20 Mean in the King James?
The thirteenth to Shubael, he, his sons, and his brethren, were twelve:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The line counts a household, and its word for “sons” carries the language of building.
THE MEANING
You are shown a place within an ordered whole: one person, his sons, and his brothers together make twelve. The household takes shape through the people counted within it.
THE ROOT
בָּנָיו
banav
GROWS FROM
בנה
to build, construct, establish
The Hebrew word for “sons” belongs to a word family associated with building. The count gathers a person, his sons, and his brothers into a household taking shape through its kin.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build, establish
בָּנָה
This is the root verb behind the building language carried by “sons.”
ben: son
בֵּן
The word for son is linked with the idea of building a household across generations.
ʾibbaneh: I may be built
אִבָּנֶה
This form makes the family-building image explicit: a household is built through children.
THE PATTERN
A person is counted within a larger whole whose unity holds distinct members together.
God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.And all that believed were together, and had all things common;THE THREAD
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.Genesis 16:2 uses אִבָּנֶה (ʾibbaneh, “I may be built”) from בנה (banah, “build”) for Sarai’s hope of children. That same build-language echoes in the word for “sons” here, opening the count as a household taking shape through its kin.
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